Bin service shake up planned across Leeds

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LEEDS council chiefs look set to scrap an automatic free new wheelie-bins policy - which costs the city £600,000 a year - as they shake up waste management services.

Binmen will also stop collecting bins that are “so heavy that they pose a health and safety risk”, as part of a raft of changes designed to “drive good waste habits” among the city’s residents.

As part of the overhaul, missed bins will not be re-collected immediately, with people instead advised to take their bin in and wait for the following week’s collection.

The overall idea is to encourage people to produce less household rubbish.

Waste management currently costs the city around £20m a year, with around 330,000 tonnes of household waste dealt with annually. Two million bins are collected every month.

A report which looks set to be approved by the council’s decision-making executive board this week lays out a range of changes to the service, which it calls “important policy developments” on “specific key issues”.

“The delivery of new/replacement bins costs approximately £600,000 a year”, the report says. ”The proposed policy is not to provide replacement bins on demand.”

Households will still have one free wheeled bin for each type of collection, which are residual waste and recyclables.

Other changes being considered include not collecting bins believed to contain contaminated waste, such as asbestos, and leaving bins that are so heavy they are considered a risk to collectors. The number of free bulky waste collections per household per year also looks likely to be slashed from 13 to three. There will also be a crackdown on additional bags of rubbish that do not fit in wheelie bins. The council says it “discourages householders from leaving side waste beside their bins, to minimise environmental problems associated with uncontained waste”.